Allen M. Chen, MD, has been appointed the new Joe and Jean Brandmeyer Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. He will join the faculty on October 1, 2016. Dr. Chen will succeed Terry Tsue, MD, the Douglas A. Girod, MD, Endowed Professor of Head ...
Dean Lee, MD, PhD, has been named the Director of the Cellular Therapy and Cancer Immunotherapy Program for Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Division of Hematology/Oncology/Blood and Marrow Transplant and Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases. Dr. Lee will also serve as the Director of...
In support of the President’s Precision Medicine Initiative, on July 6, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued two draft guidances. When finalized, they will provide a flexible and streamlined approach to the oversight of tests that detect medically important differences in a person’s...
Simulation-based education in medicine programs implemented in cancer centers for oncology/hematology fellows recreates real-world patient experiences and provides a safe—and stress-free—learning environment in which trainees can enhance their clinical and procedural skills in a variety of areas....
A therapeutic modality of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture has been extensively investigated in Western medical settings. Its clinical use is increasingly common for the management of pain and other conditions. In the oncology setting, research demonstrates that acupuncture can...
Low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer in high-risk groups is moving into the clinic in the wake of its approval by the U.S. Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services. That does not mean, however, the discussion is over. As low-dose CT moves from research to everyday...
The National Cancer Policy Forum of the National Academies of Sciences took up the issue of lung cancer screening at its mid-June workshop. Greta Massetti, PhD, Associate Director for Science, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and chair of ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Davendra P.S. Sohal, MD, MPH, of Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues, ASCO has released a clinical practice guideline on the treatment of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.1 Recommendations are based on an expert panel systematic review of...
As reported by Edward P. Balaban, DO, FASCO, of Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO has released a clinical practice guideline on the treatment of locally advanced, unresectable pancreatic cancer.1 The recommendations are based on expert...
Jonathan W. Friedberg, MD, of the University of Rochester Medical Center, discusses the use of rituximab as a single agent and in combination with chemotherapy, the emerging role of novel agents, and some possible explanations for the small subset of patients with inferior outcomes.
The 5-year survival rate of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer remains stubbornly fixed around 5%. Even in the 20% of cases in which surgical resection is undertaken for curative intent, the 5-year survival rate after surgery is 20% to 30%. As we make progress in other cancers with decreasing...
In a meta-analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Spring et al found that neoadjuvant endocrine therapy was associated with outcomes similar to those with chemotherapy in women with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer. Similar Outcomes The analysis included 3,490 patients from 20...
A collaboration between multiple European institutions has uncovered a correlation between a rare mutation in colorectal cancers and a better prognosis, raising the possibility that patients with such tumors may not require chemotherapy after surgery. Findings were published by Domingo et al in The ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Alok A. Khorana, MD, of Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues, ASCO has released a clinical practice guideline on the treatment of potentially curable pancreatic cancer.1 The recommendations are based on an expert panel systematic review of the...
As reported by Hope S. Rugo, MD, of the University of California San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO has released a clinical practice guideline on endocrine therapy for hormone receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer.1 The...
Five-year survival data published by Chen et al in Blood suggest that the targeted therapy brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) may be curative in some patients with Hodgkin lymphoma whose disease has persisted despite receiving previous therapies. This multinational phase II study examined brentuximab...
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) has been a leader in the push for better and faster cancer drug development. Now it is tackling the use of real-world evidence in clinical trials. This is the report of a meeting on the subject that took place on June 16 in Washington, DC.1 Real-world evidence...
A large observational study examining the variation in breast density assessment among radiologists in clinical practice has found a wide variation—from 6.3% to 84.5%—in the percentage of mammograms rated as showing dense breasts, which persisted after adjusting for patient...
The success of using social media to push forward causes for social good was a driving factor in the launch this past October of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Project (MBC project), which aims to accelerate the understanding of what makes patients with metastatic breast cancer genetically unique....
The ASCO Answers: Caregiving guide is designed to help family caregivers better understand their role on the cancer care team. While there is no one way to be a caregiver, people caring for someone with cancer can use this guide to understand how to meet the needs of their loved ones and work...
ASCO recently collaborated with the Middle East Cancer Consortium (MECC) to provide a 3-day International Palliative Care Workshop in Kazakhstan for health-care professionals, advocates, and volunteers in the former capital of Almaty. Dilyara Kaidarova, MD, PhD, Director of the Almaty Oncology...
At the American Medical Association’s (AMA) annual House of Delegates meeting, delegates approved four resolutions submitted by ASCO, demonstrating the entire medical community’s commitment to key cancer care priorities. These resolutions have been incorporated into the AMA’s policy system and will ...
At the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting, researchers reported encouraging results for several new drugs and treatment strategies for breast cancer. The ASCO Post brings you brief summaries of a select few. Abemaciclib Trial The cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) inhibitor abemaciclib produced responses...
The American Cancer Society (ACS) has endorsed human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the principal source of guidance on U.S. immunization policy. The ACS's...
Here are several abstracts selected from the proceedings of the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting, focusing on clinical trials on therapeutics in different types of leukemia, multiple myeloma, follicular lymphoma, and central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma. For full details of these study abstracts, visit...
“This is a tremendous advance. If we had a drug that could achieve these results we would rush to use it. This is also personalized medicine that alerts the health-care team when symptoms need addressing. And it is very important that using the app led to appropriate use of scans and tests, which...
Web-based applications have invaded mainstream culture and grabbed the attention of multitudes of people around the world. According to a study presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting, an app may also contribute to extending the lives of people with cancer and, at the same time, reduce...
Two studies presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting focused on the use of combination immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma. Updated results from the phase III CheckMate 067 trial centered on the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) compared...
On March 11, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule in the Federal Register to test a change in reimbursement for Part B drugs.1 The first phase involves changing the 6% add-on to the average sales price (ASP) used to make drug payments under Part B to...
In February, after serving for a year as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Deputy Commissioner for Medical Products and Tobacco, Robert M. Califf, MD, MACC, was named the agency’s Commissioner of Food and Drugs. Prior to his appointment at the FDA, Dr. Califf was the Donald F....
Results of two pivotal breast cancer trials reported at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting confirmed the practice-changing findings that resulted from earlier findings. PALOMA-2 The phase III PALOMA-2 trial confirmed results from the smaller, open-label phase II PALOMA-1 trial that led to the U.S. Food...
Nivolumab, a checkpoint inhibitor approved for patients with squamous and nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in 2015, is not cost-effective when compared to treatment with docetaxel, chemotherapy medication. However, a Swiss analysis showed the cost-effectiveness of nivolumab is...
A University of Michigan study published by Piert et al in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine reported that the addition of molecular imaging based on F-18-choline positron-emission tomography (PET) improves the identification of significant prostate cancer over multiparametric prostate magnetic...
High expression of T-cell and B-cell signatures in infiltrates in the tumor microenvironment predicted improved overall survival across many tumor types, according to a study reported by Iglesia et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Study Details The study involved use of mRNA...
As reported by Mateos et al in The Lancet Oncology, long-term follow-up in the phase III QuiRedex trial indicates continued benefit of lenalidomide (Revlimid)/dexamethasone vs observation in preventing disease progression in patients with high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma. Study Details In...
In a Dutch population-based study reported in The Lancet Oncology, van Maaren et al found that breast-conserving surgery plus radiotherapy was associated with improved 10-year survival vs mastectomy in women with early breast cancer. Study Details The study included data from 37,207 women from...
Despite increasing legalization of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide worldwide, the practices remain relatively rare and, when carried out, are primarily motivated by psychological factors such as loss of autonomy or enjoyment of life, rather than physical pain. A new comprehensive...
On July 7, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Roche cobas HPV Test as the first test for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) that can be used with cervical cells obtained for a Papanicolau (Pap) test and collected in SurePath Preservative Fluid. The FDA approves HPV tests to be used...
In support of the President’s Precision Medicine Initiative, on July 6, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued two draft guidances that, when finalized, will provide a flexible and streamlined approach to the oversight of tests that detect medically important differences in a...
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) has released new consensus guidelines for the management of metastatic colorectal cancer that reflect an increasingly personalized approach to treatment. These guidelines were published by Van Cutsem et al in Annals of Oncology. “Management of ...
A Norwegian population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Simer J. Bains, MD, PhD, of the Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway, University of Oslo, and colleagues showed that use of aspirin after diagnosis of colorectal cancer was associated with improved colorectal...
Andrew L. Kung, MD, PhD, has been named the new Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). Dr. Kung most recently served as the Chief of the Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplantation at NewYork–Presbyterian/Morgan...
A few months after William Roentgen’s first publications, x-rays were being produced as stereoroentgenograms. Doctors Emil Beck, James MacKenzie, Charles Leonard, Hildebrand, Walsham, and others used stereoroentgenography during the first decade of the 20th century to study the lungs, heart, and...
With an increased number of breast cancer survivors and patients with metastatic disease living longer, it is imperative for oncology care providers to manage issues of new and chronic upper extremity dysfunction as a result of the malignancy itself or its treatment. As one of my patients...
Question 1: What is the next best step for this patient? Correct Answer: C. Determination of amyloid subtype. Expert Perspective Amyloidosis encompasses a heterogeneous group of diseases bound by the characteristic deposition of amyloid fibrils in soft tissues and bone marrow, and it could be...
A new study has identified a gene signature that predicts poor survival from ovarian cancer. The study also identified genes which help the cancer develop resistance to chemotherapy—offering a new route to help tackle the disease. The study, published by Kelly et al in the International...
Prophylactic radiotherapy after surgery and large-bore pleural procedures did not result in significant reduction in the incidence of procedure-tract metastases in malignant pleural mesothelioma, according to the UK phase III SMART trial reported by Clive et al in The Lancet Oncology. Study...
In a phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Johnson et al found similar efficacy with continued ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine) chemotherapy vs omission of bleomycin (AVD) after negative interim PET-CT (positron-emission tomography–computed...
Observational Study Title: Assessment for Long-Term Cardiovascular Impairment Associated With Trastuzumab Cardiotoxicity in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Survivors Study Type: Observational Study Sponsor and Collaborators: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Purpose: To study whether strain and...
Researchers at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) presented a molecular imaging methodology that allows the increase of the radiotherapy dose to the tumor while protecting vulnerable vital organs.1 The delicate balance of administering the...